Warming Ocean Causes Pink Sea Slug Bloom In Northern California Coast

February 2, 2015 4:50 PM

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Climate change and warming ocean temperatures might have forced dolphins to change their range and destroyed corals. But they have proved beneficial to at least one species. Rising ocean temperatures off the coast of northern California have triggered a bloom in pink sea slugs. These inch-long sea slugs can now be seen in densities in dozens per square meter in tide pools along the central and northern California.

Scientists at the University of California San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and the California Academy of Sciences said that the Hopkins Rose nudibranch (Okenia rosacea) is found off the southern California coast. Pink sea slugs are rarely seen in waters off northern California. Now they are concentrati...